This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7 371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/NO99/00030 which has an International filing date of Feb. 2, 1999, which designated the United States of America.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a jack-up, movable drilling platform, comprising a deck, a drilling rig and a substructure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Jack-up, movable drilling platforms are employed for offshore oil and gas drilling, and may also be used in drilling injection wells. This type of platform has pontoons and a substructure in the form of collapsible legs. The platforms normally have a main deck where the drilling rig is located, and often also include an accommodation module, hoisting cranes, a helicopter deck and necessary processing equipment for handling oil and gas which flows out of the well during drilling.
During operation the platform is moved to a drilling field where the legs are unfolded, or more correctly, the platform is jacked up along the legs. One or more wells are then drilled with the drilling rig. If several wells are drilled, which is usually the case, the drilling rig is pushed or pulled into a new position on the main deck for drilling a new well. This makes it possible to drill several wells without moving the platform, but the number of positions for drilling wells is naturally limited by the size of the main deck. If more wells require to be drilled, the platform has to be moved, which is a time-consuming and costly operation.
Since it is often desirable to drill more wells than is possible without moving the drilling platform, there is consequently a need for a drilling platform on which it is possible to drill more wells than from the known drilling platforms.
The object of the invention is to provide a jack-up, movable drilling platform where the drilling rig can be moved to a greater number of positions for drilling than is the case on known jack-up, movable drilling platforms.
The object is achieved according to the invention with a jack-up, movable drilling platform.
Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.